[eljimmy]

Soylent is so awful for you. They really capitalized on the ignorance of millenials with regard to proper nutrition.

edit: Shouldn't have trigger responded, but one of my biggest gripes with Soylent is their use of maltodextrin. It's not something you want to be consuming in mass every day. It is good for post-workout nutrition but as a meal you may as well be consuming sugar.

[k_sh]

I'm going to need some citations on that one...

[eljimmy]

It's full of maltodextrin which is about as healthy as pounding sugar.

[sowhatquestion]

They've addressed this many times. There are different "grades" of maltodextrin with different glycemic indexes. Soylent uses a higher grade with a low glycemic index. Google "low DE maltodextrin." Soylent also uses other low-glycemic carbs such as isomaltulose.

[jv22222]

I am a type 2 diabetic using 2000mg of Metformin.

Of anything I've tried that is a "meal", nothing has spiked my blood sugar as much as a bottle of Soylent.

I really wanted to use Soylent but when my BS spiked to 350 after multiple 2h post meal tests, on multiple days, I just had to give up on the idea.

To give you an example, my BS will hit about 200 2h after a big bowl of Oatmeal and then settle back to 130-150 range.

If I eat just vegetables for a week, for example, my BS will move to the 90-120 range.

[CuriouslyC]

The glycemic index of a carbohydrate is a bad measure of its quality. A better measure is the degree to which it is fermented by bacteria in the intestines. Furthermore, there is research demonstrating that carbohydrates consumed without the phytonutrients that normally accompany them in whole food increase markers of oxidative stress and inflamation.

Soylent might be better than a frozen pizza or fast food, but in the big picture it's still shit compared to real food.

[pointytrees]

Hm, so for someone who eats frozen pizza and fast food on a daily basis (because of the convenience), would Soylent be a step up from that based on your comment?

[CuriouslyC]

Absolutely, but for just a tiny amount more work you can throw a bunch of lentils, frozen vegetables and meat in a slow cooker and get very close to an optimal diet.

[ng12]

As a type 1 diabetic I think your concerns are overblown. Soylent has a pretty low glycemic index which makes it ideal for a quick breakfast.

My only concern about Soylent is if I should be ingesting this much soy as a male of European descent.

[lowmagnet]

I find I have to combine it with a fat/protein like a serving of peanuts to make it not spike me hard. It may not have a high glycemic index, but it is already in liquid form and is thus available for digestion.

[branchless]

Isn't cereal quick? Just how busy are people?

[droidist2]

> My only concern about Soylent is if I should be ingesting this much soy as a male of European descent.

Afraid it's going to make you impotent?

[L29Ah]

I invest in starch instead and use sucralose as a sweetener.

[dgfgfdagasdfgfa]

This seems like it would result in sub-optimal insulin spikes.

[L29Ah]

AFAIK, cellulose in oats prevents quick digestion of starch so its glycemic index is in 50s.

[beagle3]

Supposedly, "instant" lack this feature, be careful which oats you use.

[nether]

Have you tried Soylent? It's barely sweet. It's not like the maltodextrin in energy gels.

[rubatuga]

Don’t forget that they use a calcium carbonate instead of calcium phosphate. Calcium carbonate has significantly less bioavailability and Soylent still claims to have 100% of your DV.

[hueving]

Regardless of whether you are right or wrong, your comment is just a massive appeal to authority containing no actual information. It contributes nothing but an insult.

[virtuallynathan]

In what way? According to who?

[eljimmy]

I've studied nutrition pretty heavily in the past as it pertained to my bodybuilding.

They could have used so many better ingredients. Maltodextrin is the cheapest and worst complex carb you could have put in it. It's chemically a complex but really your body doesn't react much differently to it than other simple sugars.

[wdewind]

Controlling for calories and assuming you're not diabetic why does it matter what your source of carbohydrate is?

[nopinsight]

Consuming much simple carbs often results in a faster rise in blood sugar and gradual insulin resistance which may lead to diabetes in the long run.

Disclaimer: Not an expert, but here is a reference: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/c...

[allover]

I think that's too simplistic of a connecting of dots.

You're conflating with overeating. I don't believe healthy people, that stay within a healthy caloric range, that aren't predisposed to diabetes need to fear that the "rise in blood sugar" from simple carbs is going to lead to diabetes. And I'm not aware of any study that shows that or even could (it'd be incredibly hard to study), correct me if wrong.

Most people eat simple carbs every day and don't get diabetes. Athletes eat a lot of carbs and don't get diabetes.

[CuriouslyC]

1.) Carbs are a "hot" fuel, they have been shown to increase markers of oxidative stress and inflammation unless paired with phytonutrients as is typically the case in whole fruits and vegetables. This is because sugars are highly reactive in comparison with fats (particularly fructose).

2.) Highly quality carbs, such as in beans, barley, certain kinds of sweet potatoes, etc, are fermented by by your gut bacteria into short chain fatty acids. Short chain fatty acids have been linked to lower inflammation, improved mood and memory, weight loss, longer life span, the list goes on.

[allover]

Sources please. 'Inflammation' sets off my pseudo-science detector. And your first point is suggesting carbs are inherently bad 'because inflammation', which I just don't buy.

[CuriouslyC]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2859324/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnme/2012/238056/ http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/33/5/991.short http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/48/4/677 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11745-007-3132-7

It will also help if you understand the chemistry of carbohydrates vs fats. Carbohydrates are inherently unstable and are much more likely to undergo spontaneous reactions than fats. This is because sugars are fringed with electrophyllic hydroxyl groups that will take part in dehydration reactions under physiological conditions. The result of this is advanced glycation end (AGE) products. The phytonutrients from plants seem to stabilize carbohydrates, which is probably part the reason the plant made them in the first place.

Carbohydrates aren't so much you body's preferred fuel, rather your body uses them first because letting them float around in circulation is harmful. This is particularly true of fructose, which the liver works very hard to prevent from entering general circulation.

[L29Ah]

Even if you're not a diabetic, blood glucose spikes affect your mental performance like a weak stimulant, creating mild mood swings. Also, high amounts of high GI foods stimulate body fat production.

[allover]

> Also, high amounts of high GI foods stimulate body fat production.

That idea, 'the insulin hypothesis', has not been proven. In fact there is now evidence that claim is false. (Paywalled study [1], summary in this article [2]).

[1] http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v71/n3/full/ejcn2016260a.... [2] https://www.vox.com/2016/7/6/12105660/do-low-carb-diets-work

[dogecoinbase]

The dozens of people on the Soylent subreddit who got weeks of diarrhea followed by jaundice? Though I think my favorite was the people who were arguing that some level of mold was acceptable if it meant they didn't have to deal with the inconvenience of foil seals.

[laretluval]

I couldn't find people complaining of jaundice on the subreddit. Do you have a link?

[jklinger410]

Meanwhile I had like 3 boxes of powder and two of the bottles and had no problems whatsoever.

Believe what you want, I guess.

[chipotle_coyote]

Really? I don't want to laugh, but snrk

Both my current and previous company got in Soylent on occasion; the current one has gotten Coffiest a few times, which I haven't tried, while the earlier one got in the bottled Soylent and the short-lived Soylent Bar. I tried the bottled version once--maybe twice?--and had no ill effects, but didn't particularly like it, either. I had no ill effects from the bar, either, and I confess I actually rather liked it. I'd probably order it again, assuming it seemed safe.

But as someone who, well, actually likes eating, I don't see the attraction of using this stuff as anything other than "I don't have enough time to cook or even go to a sit-down restaurant" type meals, the same way I would any other breakfast bar or meal drink. And looking at it that way makes their meal drinks much less appealing to me compared to, say, Ensure. Yes, Ensure has way more sugar, but it has a half-dozen fairly reasonable flavors, none of which are "dilute pancake batter."

[jeremiahlukus]

I have pretty heavy scarring in my esophagus. This causes me to choke on numerous types of foods very frequently. Soylent is a solution to this problem. Also, it helps balance my diet.

[QAPereo]

It wasn't so long ago that saying that here and elsewhere would get you shouted down, it's refreshing to see that the tide has finally turned.